Decathlete Leo Neugebauer: “America's Greatest Athlete Is a Big German”

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ohOlympia hopeful Leo Neukebauer was in strong form in the first half of the decathlon at the American College Championships. The VfB Stuttgart athlete scored 4,685 points in Eugene, Oregon on Wednesday – the 9,000-point mark two months before the Olympics. His own German record of 8836 points trembles ahead of his second day as leader.

Only four athletes in decathlon history have reached 9,000 points: Frenchman and world record holder Kevin Mayer (9,126), American Ashton Eden (9,045), Czech Roman Sepral (9,026) and Canadian Damian Warner (9,018).

With 17.46 meters in the shot put, he set a new collegiate record in the 2022 World Cup field, and he also topped the long jump with 7.86 meters and high jump with 2.07 meters. Two weeks before his 24th birthday, he ran the 100 meters in 10.64 seconds and the 400 meters in 48.03 seconds. He was almost a second slower than the German record set a year ago.

“I can't complain, after all, I had the best first day of my career. I wanted to run 400 meters, but my legs wouldn't allow it,” said Leo Neugebauer on Instagram.

“The sky is the limit”

American media have long known about the exceptional athlete. The Wall Street Journal, for example, devoted Neugbauer under the heading “America's Greatest Athlete Is a Giant German” A long article. Neugbauer is an impressive 1.98 meters tall.

A year earlier, Leo Neugebauer had become the shooting star of decathletes, breaking Jürgen Hingsen's 39-year record — and later setting a record set by Olympic runner-up Frank Bussmann in Atlanta in 1996: At the college championships in Boston, the heptathlon scored 6,347 points, breaking Bussmann's 22-year-old national indoor record. improved. In February 2002 it collected a total of 6,291 points. “The sky's the limit,” Neugebauer said in an interview with “Olympics.com” last year.

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Neugebauer, who attends and trains at the University of Texas at Austin, is skipping the European Championships in Rome for the US Collegiate Championships. The NCAA Championships are a dress rehearsal for Paris 2024: “The Olympic Games is the ultimate goal for every athlete. “You want to say, 'I'm an Olympian.'” Neukebauer said About the peak of the season. However, he does not feel too much pressure, the exceptional athlete tells “Sportschau”: “I do my thing, I try to improve day by day.”